Skip to main content
Read page text
page 192
Frank Buckland – On the Thames – W e have lately read and heard much of ‘Social Science’, and we have had it dinned into our ears how necessary fresh air and exercise are to the well-being of all good folks, be they inhabitants of town or country; but there is one outdoor sport which I think has not been mentioned at all by any of the professors of public health, yet which, to my mind, is worthy of being seriously noticed – I mean ‘angling’, or, if you please, ‘fishing’. The impure air of London necessarily creates a feeling of debility and oppression, and, as a remedy for this, the gin-shop is but too often applied to. Fresh air, be it observed, is a much cheaper and much more wholesome stimulant; and this can be obtained in abundance, and at a cheap rate, by going out fishing. How, for instance, is the poor artisan, by nature a Nimrod, by profession a tailor, to gratify his instinct at a small expense of time and money? He cannot hunt; he has no horse, and if he had, would he remain long on the animal’s back were he mounted? He cannot shoot; he has no gun, and if he had he could get nothing better than hedge-popping; but he can fish. When, where, how? Have we not our 168
page 193
noble river, the Thames, close at hand, and are there not thousands of fish in it whose destiny, sooner or later, is to be caught? A small sum expended will take the angler to Richmond, Teddington, Sunbury, Kingston, or Windsor, where fishing may be had in abundance. I do not say the angler will return with a ten-pound trout every day, but if he has luck he may get a good basket of pike, perch or gudgeon. Angling, moreover, especially Thames angling, is most admirably suited for ladies. It requires no exertion, no moving about – simply neatness of finger and quickness of eye; and I therefore cordially recommend it to the notice of the ladies. Now the first attempt at angling will probably prove a failure; it is an art, a science, that requires ingenuity, neatness, quickness of thought and action, and, above all, patience. If we listen to a lecture from a learned professor upon the brains of animals, he will point out the human brain as being at the highest end of the scale, the brain of the fish at the lowest. Holding up the brain of a fish, beautifully prepared in spirits of wine, he will say: ‘There, gentlemen, is an example of a badly-developed brain. The creature to which it belonged is proverbially dull and stupid.’ Yet the next day, if we look over Richmond-bridge, we may behold the same learned but sportless professor puzzling his well-developed brain to catch the creature which but yesterday he was asserting had so little brains. The brain of the 169

Page Text

View plaintext

Frank Buckland

– On the Thames –

W e have lately read and heard much of ‘Social Science’, and we have had it dinned into our ears how necessary fresh air and exercise are to the well-being of all good folks, be they inhabitants of town or country; but there is one outdoor sport which I think has not been mentioned at all by any of the professors of public health, yet which, to my mind, is worthy of being seriously noticed – I mean ‘angling’, or, if you please, ‘fishing’. The impure air of London necessarily creates a feeling of debility and oppression, and, as a remedy for this, the gin-shop is but too often applied to. Fresh air, be it observed, is a much cheaper and much more wholesome stimulant; and this can be obtained in abundance, and at a cheap rate, by going out fishing. How, for instance, is the poor artisan, by nature a Nimrod, by profession a tailor, to gratify his instinct at a small expense of time and money? He cannot hunt; he has no horse, and if he had, would he remain long on the animal’s back were he mounted? He cannot shoot; he has no gun, and if he had he could get nothing better than hedge-popping; but he can fish. When, where, how? Have we not our

168

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content